An author is not given for Psalm 123. It is assumed that it was written about the time the children of Israel were in captivity. There they suffered and there they waited for the Lord to look upon them and have mercy on them.
The Psalm begins by addressing the only One who can help when mercy is needed, “Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.” (verse 1) It is interesting that, in verse one, there seems to be only one person addressing God, speaking acknowledgement that God is the source of hope and that He is high and lifted up and dwells in the heavens. Yet the rest of the Psalm seems to come from the people as a whole. Verse two says, “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.”
For what were the people asking? More money, food, houses, health care? No. They asked only one thing – mercy. Verse three says, “Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.” As Matthew Henry explains, “They sue for mercy, not prescribing to God what he shall do for them, nor pleading any merit of their own why he should do it for them, but, Have mercy upon us, O Lord! have mercy upon us. We find little mercy with men; their tender mercies are cruel; there are cruel mockings. But this is our comfort, that with the Lord there is mercy and we need desire no more to relieve us, and make us easy, than the mercy of God.”
In contrast to the people who saw God high and lifted up and came to Him for mercy, those that oppressed them were at ease. Their oppressors scorned them and had great contempt for them. The ones who reproached them were proud and had a high opinion of themselves and did not regard God in His greatness. Therefore, those who were troubled poured out their complaint to God, “Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.” (verse 4)
The Psalm ends there, with the people waiting. They continue to look to God and wait, confidently expecting an answer to their pleas. If the answer for us seems far away, God is still high and lifted up. He still hears our prayer. Let us keep asking and waiting. The answer will surely come.